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The US State Department (DOS) announced on December 30 that it had instructed embassies throughout “the Western Hemisphere to report on human rights abuses caused by mass migration.” Nowhere is the confluence of organized crime and human trafficking clearer than in Guatemala. Ambassador Tobin Bradley and Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Patrick Ventrell have facilitated it.
This betrayal of President Donald Trump could be the leading example that justifies recalling 29 of Joe Biden’s appointees, including Bradley. Replacing him and Ventrell with political appointees to execute a new policy will improve national security, educate the public, and help Trump preserve our Constitution.
Bradley and Ventrell intimidated Guatemala’s judiciary to illegally keep President Bernardo Arévalo in office after a courageous judge canceled Arévalo’s Semilla party. The prosecution presented the judge, whom the US embassy could not intimidate, with more than 8,000 fraudulent registrations. A party needs about 25,000 registrations to formalize. The cancellation legally requires Arevalo’s removal from office.
In her November 4 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Representative Maria Salazar (R-FL) demanded he remove these two Biden holdovers. She alleges that Ventrell threatened three Supreme Court magistrates to vote as the embassy wanted in an internal election.
James Judge’s December 12 report asserts that Biden holdovers in Guatemala have undermined Trump in several illegal ways. This includes reinstating a congressman’s revoked US visa. He lost the visa over alleged narcotrafficking activities but delivered 10 congressional votes to support “Ventrell’s agenda.” Ventrell’s last-minute intervention with that congressman propped up Arévalo with a friendly congressional leadership.
Judge reports that Bradley and Ventrell have been facilitating cartel money laundering to “fund discontinued USAID programs.” The laundered money “is ultimately funneled back to the US … to Antifa, pro-Palestine, and No Kings protests.”
Judge, in a later X post, states that Arévalo’s defense minister aids narcotrafficking. Events in June affirm this charge.
DOS personnel have been collaborating with the Soles Cartel. It held control of Venezuela until Trump removed Nicolás Maduro on January 3. Guatemala offers a unique opportunity to expose Soles Cartel subversion inside our government.
Ventrell and Bradley have said falsely that keeping Arévalo in office benefited the United States because of his pro-US policies. DOS personnel serving cartel interests and corrupt Guatemalan private-sector actors want Arévalo continuity so they can control his appointments and policy.
Trump must not permit this. Retaining Arévalo impedes the rule of law necessary to develop Guatemala and combat narcotrafficking and illegal migration. DOS traitors and other corrupt actors can within the next five months appoint electoral-authority and Constitutional Court (CC) magistrates and the attorney general. This would guarantee more rigged elections in 2027.
Arévalo is a member of the anti-US Puebla Group. He joined his colleagues in condemning Trump’s January 3 removal of Maduro, and Arévalo will not be a US puppet regarding appointments. Edgar Gutierrez, Arévalo’s advisor and ambassador to Mexico, is an expert in manipulating governments for radical socialism.
Gutierrez has been working with President Claudia Sheinbaum to fix Guatemala’s 2027 presidential election for the Puebla Group agenda. Arévalo has been trying to sell Perenco’s Guatemalan oil fields to Pemex to corruptly finance presidential aspirant Samuel Pérez.
Guatemala’s CC is its last word on constitutional issues. Shortly after Bradley was recalled, the CC granted a temporary injunction on December 30 against the illegal 2026 budget. It only passed because of US embassy coercion.
The four-to-one vote against the budget indicates the CC would be willing to remove Arévalo from office. Trump could support this by removing Ventrell and replacing him and Bradley with non-DOS people loyal to his America-first agenda. Along with Maduro’s removal, this would signal to the CC and the entire region that Biden’s era of lawlessness is ending.
Legally removing Arévalo from office would encourage Guatemala’s Congress to appoint a successor who would apply the law. Trump can contribute, without US money or force, to restoring Guatemala as a key US ally.
Trump should urge the US Congress to hold hearings on DOS-Soles Cartel collusion, with a focus on Guatemala. The crimes, including treason and human-rights abuses, revealed by these hearings will disgust US voters. The hearings should cascade to other departments and countries and create increased support for punishing those who betray our country.
Such hearings would help the America-first movement in the midterms. They can educate the public about the subversive assault on our constitutional system.
